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On breast feeding, user interfaces, and open source software

Per ajoramos's blog on getting bruised, this reminds me of my previous insights about how much similar breast feeding is with free and open source software.

Look at the similarities:

1. Breast milk is free.
2. Breast milk is good for you.
3. The only way you can appreciate breast milk is if you get it (as babies of course!). But if you were given (proprietary) formula milk, it will be hard for you to appreciate this benefit as babies immediately develop a taste for formula milk.
4. The only way formula milk will sell is if the baby is immediately separated from the mother's breast right after birth [this separation is crucial -- the breast needs the baby to suck to create milk so separating them means the breast will not produce milk and the anxious mother will revert to formula milk]. This means making sure these milk giveaways are at the bedside of the mother even *before* they go into labor.
5. Once you develop a taste for proprietary milk, it will be hard to go back to the less tasty (but healthy) breast milk.

Bottomline: if we can help it, we should let people who are new to ICT, to experience FOSS rather than proprietary systems. We have trained hundreds of midwives and they know how to use Linux because that was the first thing they see.

My own personal experience was painful as well. I was on dual-boot for a long time, until I started talking about FOSS so I converted my laptop to Ubuntu.

Some ask 'why are you using Mac OSX?' and my answer is because it's there and it's good.